Ruth Hector: Authors Live with the brilliant Jacqueline Wilson!

We have had some fantastic authors on Authors Live but we were over the moon to have Jacqueline Wilson last week. Jacqueline did an amazing event and this week, Ruth Hector from the BBC stops by the blog to talk about the brillliant event with Jacqueline Wilson.

‘This is Rose’ explained the text, accompanied by a cartoon image of a pleasant looking lady in comfy style clothing. ‘No, THIS is Rose’ came the reply, below which an unhappy woman of proportions verging on grotesque bulged out of the page. It is amazing how much seven words can inspire you. My little sister and I as children were very taken with these contrasting view of Rose, new step-mum to twins Garnet and Ruby, stars of Jacqueline Wilson’s Double Act, who have very different opinions of dad’s new girlfriend. We proceeded to fill several double-pages of a notebook with similar comparisons: an agreeable, attractive person on the left: ‘This is my mum’, followed by a hopelessly ugly person on the right (with inevitable stink lines): “No, THIS is my mum.’

Years later and now in our twenties, I don’t know if we still have the notebook; it may not have survived my parents’ recent house move. But we have kept Double Act, and the many other Jacqueline Wilson books we acquired over the years – not always legally: a couple were ‘borrowed’ from the school library and never made it back.

 Although I am now about over a decade older than Wilson’s intended age group, I still read her books sometimes and continue to be a fan. Having read the ‘Girls…’ series more times than I can count, I fancy I could almost recite the antics of Ella, Magda and Nadine off by heart.

So I was very pleased when I found out that my colleagues at the BBC had organised for Jacqueline Wilson to come in and take part in Authors Live. This is a collaborative project between the Scottish Book Trust and BBC Scotland Learning, in which well-known children’s authors come to BBC Scotland in Glasgow and speak about their work and influences to schoolchildren and teachers. This is streamed live on BBC Scotland Learning and remains as a video, biography and Q&A available on the site afterwards. So far, after five successful events, over 350,000 children around the UK have viewed the authors’ presentations here.

She begins with an explanation of how she got into writing fiction. “I wasn’t very good at most school subjects,” she says, going on to tell of her difficulties with maths, and lack of ability to catch a ball or run fast in PE. As a girl, she had a habit of not concentrating on lessons and going into an imaginary world of her own. ‘Jacky Daydream’, the title of the autobiography of her childhood, was a nickname given to Jacqueline by one of her old teachers, she explains. It was ‘Jacky Foureyes’ when she started wearing glasses, and ‘Jacky Slyboots’ because, understandably enough, she was often too timid to look in the eyes of the man who also took pleasure in hitting his pupils with a ruler.

Even maggots were more appealing to Jacqueline than maths or sport: she brought along the first ever ‘book’ she wrote as a child, called The Maggots. Its focus was a diverse family of nine maggots, from a rebellious teenager to a book-worm (so to speak).

Tales of children – usually girls – facing difficult family problems such as separated parents, serious illness, domestic violence and abandonment are Jacqueline’s speciality. She almost exclusively writes in the first person. “It’s the most immediate and interesting way to write,” she explains. “It certainly helps you to remember what it was like to be a child.” Thankfully Jacqueline’s childhood was not half as traumatic as those her characters must deal with.

Jacqueline tells some funny tales about writing her books. Contrary to the advice children often receive from teachers, she says, “I don’t plan it all beforehand…that’s what makes it exciting for me.” Inspiration often comes at unexpected moments. Tracy Beaker gained her surname after Jacqueline had a bath. She was looking around the bathroom for ideas, but “Tracy Tap”, “Tracy Toilet” and the like just didn’t cut it. The name Tracy Beaker was found a few minutes later. And it was a tattooed woman with two children, pointed out by Jacqueline’s daughter during a trip to Central Park in the US, that gave rise to The Illustrated Mum.

Jacqueline is currently working on a sequel to her Victorian story, Hetty Feather, about a young girl abandoned by her parents, and brought up in a ‘Foundling Hospital’. Such has been the extent of her research into Victorian life, she mentions, “I’ve even started dreaming about Victorian times.” With such an investment of imagination, dreams and research it’s no surprise to learn that when Jacqueline finishes a new book, she misses the characters and their unfolding stories. Hetty Feather may well become a trilogy, she says.

Despite many of her heroines suffering at the hands of abusive fathers, neglectful mothers or school bullies, they remain a largely robust bunch. Feistier characters, such as Elsa from The Bed and Breakfast Star or the eponymous Tracy Beaker, are often the troublemakers themselves, as they struggle with difficult feelings or just seek to make mischief. In other circumstances, these kids will often be the first to stick up for a child being bullied, or protect their parents from the perceived threat posed by the authorities. The parents of Jacqueline’s stories are often troubled themselves; well-meaning but unable to provide a stable upbringing. As Jacqueline explains, she seeks to be realistic about the fact there is good and bad in all of us. “I don’t actually set out to write books with messages” she says, but the common message running through her work would be that “it’s OK to be different. In fact it’s great if you’re different.”

The talk finishes with questions from the pupils, from those in the studio and from some of the 47,000 children watching online. It is a testament to the value of the Authors Live project, and to Jacqueline, that in total 688 schools logged on to watch the webstream live. Over 550 questions were emailed in.

For those present at BBC Scotland, the event continues after the cameras stop rolling. There is a book sale, and a signing giving the children (and some of us staff) the chance not only to get their favourite titles signed by Wilson, but also to have a closer look at her now infamous rings adorning her fingers. Yes she does buy a new one for (nearly) every new book she publishes; after mentioning it once on television “it became a self-fulfilling prophecy”. Thankfully, the weight of all that chunky jewellery doesn’t impede her ability to keep writing. Her latest novel, Lily Alone, about an 11 year-old girl who is left to care for her three younger siblings when her mother moves abroad, is about to be released. She hasn’t run out of steam and intends to keep on producing the engaging, challenging and humorous stories she has become so well-known for.

So, a quiet, shy, dreamy girl living in her own world? This is Jacqueline. Or a successful, driven woman whose books continue to spread in their millions around the world? No, THIS is Jacqueline. Well, they both are.

If you missed the event, you can watch it by going to Jacqueline Wilson's page on our website.

We offered one lucky reader the chance to meet Jacqueline Wilson, be part of the live audience at the BBC studios and have their very own short story published in the Sunday Herald Have a look at the entries here.

Other news:

Congratulations goes to Cathy MacPhail for winning the RED Book Awards last week with Grass. The announcement was made at the Award's Ceremony on Wednesday 26th January 2011 at the Falkirk Town Hall. You can find out more about the awards and the titles on the shortlist by visiting their website.

Join best-selling author Eoin Colfer, author of the wonderful Artemis Fowl series for 40 minutes of brilliant comedy, to celebrate World Book Day and Authors Live first birthday. Eoin began writing in primary school with tales inspired by the Vikings that he was studying. His Artemis Fowl series has turned Eoin into a writing superstar and he even has an Artemis Fowl tour bus when out on the road in America!

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